Patients in hospitals are often connected to an intravenous system to deliver medicines and saline solution to the patient. Often the tubing interconnecting the supply of medicine and/or saline solution and the patient is sufficiently long in order to providing some maneuverability for the patient that the tubing hangs well below the patient's arms when standing. This low hanging tubing presents a safety hazard in that the loop of tubing hanging at the lowest point is subjected to engaging protruding obstacles and can then pull on the patient's catheter or other connection with the patient. While the use of catheter tubing may be the most common situation in which tubing is hanging from a patient, other similar situations can be found on patients with medicinal pumps, patients with urinary catheters, and patients with feeding tubes, as a few examples.
Another remotely similar situation occurs with respect to electronic equipment. In the medical field, a patient can have electronic medical equipment with lead wires, such as EKG monitors and the like, or simply head phone wires, or ear bud wires, such as are connected to iPods to allow the wearer to hear audio programs as well as music stored in the electronic device. Often these electronic wires dangle from the wearer's ears to the location of the electronic device is attached to the wearer where electronic device is supported with a sufficient length to allow the wearer to have significant flexibility in locating the support place for the electronic device. As with the catheter tubing, the electronic wiring can be engaged by protruding obstacles that pull the hearing implements or medical monitors, etc., away from the wearer and/or the electronic device, thus interrupting the transmission of the desired electronic signal or simply the listening enjoyment of the wearer.
A solution to this problem of dangling catheter tubing, wires, etc., particularly when the patient is ambulatory, is often solved by the use of a safety pin that captures the tubing/wiring and is then pinned to the clothing worn by the patient, which is often a thin cotton, or similar material, hospital gown. While this use of a safety pin presents a perfunctory solution to the problem of the dangling catheter tubing, the safety pin cannot be used when the patient is being subjected to tests such as a an X-ray or an MRI, as the metal safety pin has to be removed to perform the tests due to the nature of the machine not being receptive to metal.
It would be desirable to provide a retention device that could engage medical tubing or electronic wiring to permit the tubing or wiring to be supported on an article of clothing of the wearer, which would prevent the loop of tubing from hanging too low or away from the wearer for engagement with a protruding obstacle. If allowed with respect to a machine on which testing is being done on the patient, the retention device may not have to be removed, thus retaining control of the tubing even while certain tests are being conducted.